Pierre Caziot was a French agricultural expert and administrator who was Minister of Agriculture and Supplies in the Vichy government during World War II.
25 Facts About Pierre Caziot
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Pierre Caziot was a strong believer in the value of the peasant-owned family farm, and promoted the "back to the land" policies of Marshal Philippe Petain during the war.
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Pierre Caziot was born in Crezancy-en-Sancerre, Cher, on 24 September 1876.
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Pierre Caziot became well known as a farmer and agricultural engineer, and was a member of the Academy of Agriculture.
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Pierre Caziot argued that for a peasant to be attached to the soil he had to own his plot of land.
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Pierre Caziot became a high official in the Credit Foncier, the government land bank that Napoleon III had established.
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Pierre Caziot was named Minister of Agriculture and Supplies on 12 July 1940.
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Pierre Caziot learned of his appointment from a neighbor, who had heard the news on the radio.
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Pierre Caziot hesitated to accept the unexpected offer of the Ministry of Agriculture, since he was deeply hostile to the Germans, but soon overcame his scruples.
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Pierre Caziot insisted that a separate ministry take responsibility for the supply of food.
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Pierre Caziot was Minister of Agriculture and Supplies from 12 July 1940 to 6 September 1940, then Secretary of State for Agriculture and Supplies from 6 September 1940 to 13 December 1940 in the government of Marshal Philippe Petain.
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Pierre Caziot was Minister and Secretary of State for Agriculture from 13 December 1940 to 18 April 1942 in the governments of Petain and Francois Darlan.
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Pierre Caziot was succeeded by Jacques Le Roy Ladurie, who was a passionate agrarian.
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Pierre Caziot wrote of the challenge he faced when he took office,.
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Pierre Caziot offered subsidies to peasants if they returned from the cities to work on unused land, provided loans on easy terms for modernization of rural houses, created a law on education to train more agronomists and to give rural children in basic education in agricultural technology, and implemented reforms to discourage the break-up of farms and to encourage the regrouping of scattered land holdings.
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Pierre Caziot promulgated the law of 2 December 1940 that organized the Peasant Corporation.
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Pierre Caziot lacked enthusiasm for corporatism and delayed implementation of the Peasant Corporation.
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Pierre Caziot appointed a provisional national organizing committee on 21 January 1941.
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Pierre Caziot's commission, headed by Count Herve Budes de Guebriant, was mostly made up of leading conservative landowners and took nearly two years to develop the legislation that became effective on 16 December 1942.
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In October 1941 Pierre Caziot wrote to the Commissioner-General for Jewish Questions, Xavier Vallat, protesting against the effect his Aryanization and spoliation measures were having on the productivity of Jewish farmers and agricultural projects.
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Pierre Caziot opposed the law, which he felt was against the best interests of the nation due to the agricultural crisis.
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Pierre Caziot wanted to keep the best qualified people in each job whatever their religion.
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Pierre Caziot often succeeded in keeping Jews in senior positions in agriculture in defiance of Vallat's rulings.
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Pierre Caziot was tried by the High Court on 19 March 1947 for his participation in the Vichy government and sentenced to national degradation for life and loss of his property.
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Pierre Caziot was pardoned after a telegram from Otto Abetz was found in the Nazi archives demanding his arrest for hostility to collaboration.